Does plants have atma? In that case,can they get promoted to human beings?

What about common man who destroy plants for food.Will that add to his bad karma?

smaranam

28 June 2013, 07:48 AM

Hi. Namaste.

Plants are living beings. They have AtmA, they are sentient, but the tAmas, or tamo guNa i.e. material mode of ignorance is very high in them.
They will be gradually elevated to higher and higher creatures. Not humans directly. Karma is a natural process.

exceptional case: When Kuber's 2 sons were disrespectful owing to oppulent positions in svarga, NArad Muni, considering their well-being in the long run, cursed them to become trees. He said VAsudev, NArAyaNa (KRshNa) will deliver them in DvApar yuga. In the 28th dvApar yuga, when KRshNa descended on earth, He was a playful toddler who would smile sweetly and steal butter from mesmerised neighbors. The neighbors complaints made His mother Yashoda tie Him to a mortar (to her it was like strapping Him in a car seat). KRshNa, a toddler, crawled along with the mortar through the 2 yamal-arjun trees which crashed to ground. Out came the spirits of Kuber's sons. KRshNa said "What would you like as a boon?" They asked for analloyed devotion to Him, KRshNa, and nothing more. They left for their previous abode from which they had fallen.

Acc. to ShripAd Shrivallabh (incarnation of DattAtreya), in Kali Yuga, many animals and lower forms of life have become humans. This is why we see alarming behaviors in humans at times. Up until recently, there were savages and not very civilized humans - that was the reason.

Everyone gets a chance. The Lord is very compassionate.

Hare KRshNa

smaranam

28 June 2013, 09:14 AM

What about common man who destroy plants for food.Will that add to his bad karma?

There are 5 kinds of necessary actions that are relatively violent:
cutting grinding sweeping etc. called pancha karma. because germs, bacteria, plants, insects get killed.

We will not be able to survive without some violence.

Any food first offered to the Supreme Lord, and then taken as prasAd, is free of bad karma. Therefore, cooking vegetarian food and offering it to BhagavAn first and then eating it is the best way to avoid any bad karma or any violence.

Taken a step further, living with the attitude of gratitude and surrender to the Supreme Lord, humility regarding one's condition as the need for some violence, and love and regard for nature and beings, is acknowledged by the Supreme and He protects you from bad karma, also burns existing karma. This is bhakti yoga. Surrender, devotion, gratitude, love, seeing BhagavAn in all hearts and everywhere.

Bhagvan Shri KRshNa says in Bhagvad Gita:

Pure Bhakti:
BG 9.26 (http://bhagavadgitaasitis.com/9/26/en): If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, I will accept it.

Karma-mishrit bhakti:
BG 9.27 (http://bhagavadgitaasitis.com/9/27/en): Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer or give away, and whatever austerities you perform — do that, O son of Kuntī (http://bhagavadgitaasitis.com/k/kunti), as an offering to Me.
BG 9.28 (http://bhagavadgitaasitis.com/9/28/en): In this way you will be freed from bondage to work and its auspicious and inauspicious results. With your mind fixed on Me in this principle of renunciation, you will be liberated and come to Me.

BG 9.29 (http://bhagavadgitaasitis.com/9/29/en): I envy no one, nor am I partial to anyone. I am equal to all. But whoever renders service unto Me in devotion is a friend, is in Me, and I am also a friend to him.

Karma Yoga:
BG 3.10 (http://bhagavadgitaasitis.com/3/10/en): In the beginning of creation, the Lord of all creatures sent forth generations of men and demigods, along with sacrifices for Viṣṇu (http://bhagavadgitaasitis.com/v/visnu), and blessed them by saying, "Be thou happy by this yajña (http://bhagavadgitaasitis.com/y/yajna) [sacrifice] because its performance will bestow upon you everything desirable for living happily and achieving liberation."
BG 3.11 (http://bhagavadgitaasitis.com/3/11/en): The demigods, being pleased by sacrifices, will also please you, and thus, by cooperation between men and demigods, prosperity will reign for all.
BG 3.12 (http://bhagavadgitaasitis.com/3/12/en): In charge of the various necessities of life, the demigods, being satisfied by the performance of yajña (http://bhagavadgitaasitis.com/y/yajna) [sacrifice], will supply all necessities to you. But he who enjoys such gifts without offering them to the demigods in return is certainly a thief.
BG 3.13 (http://bhagavadgitaasitis.com/3/13/en): The devotees of the Lord are released from all kinds of sins because they eat food which is offered first for sacrifice. Others, who prepare food for personal sense enjoyment, verily eat only sin.
BG 3.14 (http://bhagavadgitaasitis.com/3/14/en): All living bodies subsist on food grains, which are produced from rains. Rains are produced by performance of yajña (http://bhagavadgitaasitis.com/y/yajna) [sacrifice], and yajña (http://bhagavadgitaasitis.com/y/yajna) is born of prescribed duties.
BG 3.15 (http://bhagavadgitaasitis.com/3/15/en): Regulated activities are prescribed in the Vedas, and the Vedas are directly manifested from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Consequently the all-pervading Transcendence is eternally situated in acts of sacrifice.
BG 3.16 (http://bhagavadgitaasitis.com/3/16/en): My dear Arjuna (http://bhagavadgitaasitis.com/a/arjuna), one who does not follow in human life the cycle of sacrifice thus established by the Vedas certainly leads a life full of sin. Living only for the satisfaction of the senses, such a person lives in vain.
BG 3.17 (http://bhagavadgitaasitis.com/3/17/en): But for one who takes pleasure in the self, whose human life is one of self-realization, and who is satisfied in the self only, fully satiated — for him there is no duty.
BG 3.18 (http://bhagavadgitaasitis.com/3/18/en): A self-realized man has no purpose to fulfill in the discharge of his prescribed duties, nor has he any reason not to perform such work. Nor has he any need to depend on any other living being.
BG 3.19 (http://bhagavadgitaasitis.com/3/19/en): Therefore, without being attached to the fruits of activities, one should act as a matter of duty, for by working without attachment one attains the Supreme.

_/\_

om namo bhagavate vAsudevAya

Who am i

29 June 2013, 04:39 AM

Thanks for Information.This is really amazing.

hinduismâ™¥krishna

26 July 2013, 11:24 AM

Namaste who am i

Yes, plants have atma.

But cutting plants for food doesn't incur sins. Plants are in almost unconsciousness state like rock. Killing them for having limited food is allowed. Nothing wrong or bad karma in it.

Plants go through all living bodies until it attains a human body according to the law of karma. It gets a last birth of animal kingdom in cow form and then at last a human form.